On this day, State Department official Sheryl Walter sends a response letter to CREW’s chief counsel Anne Weismann that states “no records responsive to your request were located.” No details or reasons are given. (US Department of State, 8/29/2016)

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) had been pursuing the public release of all of Clinton’s emails. CREW has been one of the top political watchdog organizations, targeting unethical and corrupt behavior in both major political parties. But in August 2014, CREW was effectively taken over by David Brock, a close Clinton ally who runs the main Super PAC [political action committee] for her presidential campaign.

In December 2012, CREW filed the first Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request seeking Clinton’s emails from when she was secretary of state, and that began a long legal battle over the issue.

However, after Clinton’s email scandal becomes public following a New York Times story on it on March 2, 2015, the new CREW leadership decides not to pursue the issue. Anne Weismann, CREW’s chief counsel who led the search for the emails, will later comment, “It was made quite clear to me that CREW and I would not be commenting publicly on the issue of Secretary Clinton using a personal email account to conduct agency business. The fact that we said nothing on that subject says volumes.” Weismann soon quits CREW as a result.

Others also quit. Louis Mayberg, a cofounder of CREW, quits in March 2015, saying, “I have no desire to serve on a board of an organization devoted to partisanship.” He also says that CREW’s lack of action regarding the email scandal is another key factor in his departure. (Bloomberg News, 4/11/2016)